Program Overview
The Carbon Storage Program uses theory along with lab, field, and simulation approaches to investigate processes needed to inform and guide the safe and effective implementation of geologic carbon sequestration. Through collaborations with partner organizations that lead major field projects involving CO2 injection, the Carbon Storage program investigators confront and solve real-world challenges in monitoring, modeling, and data analysis. Through applying their world-leading capabilities, EESA investigators develop innovative and deployable scientific solutions to these challenges with an emphasis on applicability, knowledge dissemination, and technology transfer.
Key topics of investigation include:
- Capacity, trapping mechanisms, and permanence
- Field studies at CO2 injection sites, including fluid sampling under in situ conditions (U-Tube)
- Monitoring and verification using geophysical (e.g., seismic) and surface methods (e.g., InSAR)
- Containment assurance (leakage, seepage, and well-blowout impacts and mitigation)
- Impacts on the environment, including to groundwater and induced seismicity
- Risk-based assessment and certification
- Performance prediction (using TOUGH suite of codes)
- CO2-enhanced hydrocarbon recovery options
- Machine learning for faster simulation and data analysis